Weather stalls police HQ demolition

Published
7:00 pm EST, Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The former police headquarters on West Ave. The Common Council will vote on the $7,000 for additional enviromental consulting services realted to the demolition of the building in Mathews Park. Hour photo / Erik Trautmann

The former police headquarters on West Ave. The Common Council will vote on the $7,000 for additional enviromental consulting services realted to the demolition of the building in Mathews Park. Hour photo /

The former police headquarters on West Ave. The Common Council will vote on the $7,000 for additional enviromental consulting services realted to the demolition of the building in Mathews Park. Hour photo / Erik Trautmann

The former police headquarters on West Ave. The Common Council will vote on the $7,000 for additional enviromental consulting services realted to the demolition of the building in Mathews Park. Hour photo /

Environmental remediation and frozen ground has pushed back demolition of the former police headquarters on West Avenue until spring, according to city officials.

"At this point, we need to excavate some soil around the building," Alan Lo, the city's building and facilities manager, recently told The Hour. "It's all under snow and frozen. It's not really cost-effective for a contractor to go out there. As soon as the weather breaks and it's warm enough, they can start doing stuff."

The city had hoped to raze the former police station at 297 West Ave. last summer, but demolition was pushed back because of added diligence required by the federal government in removing window caulking that contains polychlorinated biphenyls -- a toxic substance once used for insulation.

On Tuesday night, the Common Council authorized Mayor Richard A. Moccia to execute an amendment to the city's contract with Hygenix, Inc., of Stamford to provide additional environmental consulting for a cost not to exceed $7,000.

According to a memorandum from Lo, Hygenix expended additional hours monitoring the remediation process, and preparing reports and other documentation for the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection.

"Our environmental consultant has obtained post remediation samples and has submitted (the report) to EPA for acceptance," Lo wrote. "Upon EPA approval of our post remediation report, Stamford Wrecking will proceed with building demolition which is anticipated to be in the spring due to weather conditions."

Last year, the council authorized Moccia to sign a contract with Stamford Wrecking Co. to demolish the vacant building and revert the area to parkland for a cost not to exceed $426,675.

The additional abatement work has boosted the cost of the contract by approximately $45,000.

The roughly $4.7-million project calls for tearing down the 24,000-square-foot building, which was built in the 1960s, removing its foundation to a depth of 3 feet, disposing of any remaining environmental hazards, back filling the site, supplying and installing additional fill as needed, putting in topsoil, planting grass seed and adding some landscaping.

In spring 2005, police moved from the West Avenue building into a new headquarters at One Monroe Street in South Norwalk. Funding to demolish the old headquarters was repeatedly pushed back to pay for other capital projects.